Market Verdict on Iron Ore：
• Neutral.
Macro:
• The U.S. Federal president Jerome Powell indicated that if inflation maintained stronger than expectation, federal would consider to extend interest hike to 2024 to reach the target level at 2%.
Iron Ore Key Indicators:
• Platts62 $121.70, -2.35, MTD $124.77. BHP sold JMBF at IODEX March Index and a discount of $4.9. The discount cargoes had widened even during the fixed price rally period, to compete with premium product. Thus, PBF and NHGF premium was stuck in narrow area during last two months. The bids suddenly emerged yesterday following the well improved import margin after index corrected for few days.
SGX Iron Ore 62% Futures& Options Open Interest (Feb 7th)
• Futures 100,885,800 tons(Increase 111,700 tons)
• Options 76,596,000 tons(Increase 2,275,500 tons)
Steel Key Indicators:
• The Turkey and Syria earthquake damaged the gas pipeline and road transportation. Although major steel mills including Isdemir, Tosselik, MMK indicated the production was not impacted, some mills still announced force majeuer because of the disruption of transportation.
Coal Indicators:
• Mongolia exported 31.67 million tons of coals in 2022, or $6.5 billion, doubled the amount in 2021.The Mongolia media indicated that the export of coals had recovered to pre-pandemic times.
• Australia FOB Coking coal market heard the highest bid at $370/mt for 40,000mt HCCA Branded coal with March laycan. The tradeable values for PLV ranged from $350.25-360.25.
